Conference Committee Planning

We’re in the planning stages of this year’s CCCOnline Annual Conference!

If you have comments or suggestions for the committee, please feel free to drop us a line in the CCCOnline Community (Cultivating Excellence thread), or you may email Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu or Elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu.

The conference will be held at Arapahoe Community College on Friday, Sept. 21.

New OER Links for Instructors

If you’re interested in finding more quality material to support your classes, check out our new Open Educational Resources page (at the CCCOnline Wiki -- path: Teaching Resources/Library Resources/Instructor Resources). It has something for instructors of all disciplines!

http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Teaching_Resources_-_Library_Resources_-_Instructor_Resources

Many thanks to Mary Cash, our Instructional Online Librarian, for compiling the page.

Save the Date: Something’s Cooking at CCCOnline!

What’s cooking at CCCOnline? It’s our Annual Conference, and we invite you to SAVE THE DATE: Friday, Sept. 21, 2012!

More information and call for proposals to follow within the next few weeks!

If you have questions or comments about the CCCOnline Annual Conference, please contact Karen Kaemmerling or Liz Dzabic (Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu or Elizabeth.dzabic@cccs.edu).

Developmental Education Task Force at CCCS

Below, more news from our Academic Team! This important task force’s official mission, goals, and contact information are below:

The Developmental Education Task Force (DETF) has been charged with reviewing developmental education practices throughout the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) and making recommendations about what steps the system will take to become the premier purveyor of developmental education in more streamlined and efficient ways, resulting in greater student success.

Through data and research, the DETF will holistically examine the role that developmental education plays in overall student success. The DETF will:

1. Review and clarify the purpose of developmental education and analyze implications for policy and practice resulting from a clarified purpose.
2. Review current system policies and practices related to developmental education and propose revisions that will promote greater student success in alignment with sound academic principles and practice.
3. Investigate and analyze measures of success, data reports and studies on success of developmental education students.
4. Examine structures for developmental education, highlighting innovative and successful strategies, improving the student experience and identifying barriers to success.
5. On the basis of a comprehensive review, recommend broad strategies and specific initiatives related to developmental education that should be pursued by Colorado's Community College System Colleges, leading to enhanced outcomes for student learning and success.

The DETF is led by Dr. Casey Sacks, Interim Dean of Developmental Education for CCCS, and has 30+ members from across the state. CCCOnline is represented by Heidi Barrett, who serves on the Online Learning Subcommittee.

To learn more about the DETF and its current research, visit http://www.cccs.edu/developmental-education/index.html. If you have questions or comments, please contact Heidi Barrett at Heidi.oberle-barrett@cccs.edu.

Immersive Learning Faculty Challenge Grant

More news from our Academic Team:

Are you using scenario based learning or games in your classes? Do you have ideas to create educational games that support student success in your classes but haven’t had the time to really develop something? Now is the time to advertise and expand on what you are already doing or to collaborate with peers at CCCOnline and in the CCCS system to create something that will engage students in immersive activities. We encourage you to reach out not only within CCCOnline, but across disciplines and across institutions to develop these “lighthouse programs.” For example, the history instructors from multiple institutions teaching Colorado history might collaborate to create a pioneer settlement game, or history, geography, and political science instructors might get together to create a geography activity that would meet competencies in all three areas.

Karen Kaemmerling, Associate Dean of Social Sciences, is the CCCOnline representative on the Immersive Learning Advisory Group; this group created the request for proposals to all faculty and staff in the CCCS system to address the growing interest and use of game-based and immersive learning in our classes. The Faculty Challenge Grant program expects the submissions to identify a need, focus on improving student success and engagement, and provide sustainable, collaborative solutions. The activities created as part of the grants will be available to all faculty and staff in the CCCS system under the Creative Commons attribution license.

Please see the Request for Proposals and related documents at this page: http://cccs.edu/EdServices/Educators.html

Be creative, have fun, and please contact Karen Kaemmerling at Karen.kaemmerling@cccs.edu with questions.